Why do you charge so much less than other providers?
One of the drivers behind the inception of Zoom Educational Support in 2018 was when a school SENCo explained that she was identifying more and more pupils in need of specialist support but she couldn’t afford to buy it in from the school's usual provider. Surely, if schools can’t afford to access specialist support, it’s the children most in need who miss out! That doesn't sit right with us, and that is why we purposefully keep our costs as low as possible in order to keep our pricing as realistic as possible.

We're looking into staff training, what topics do you cover?
We provide a range of training and follow-up coaching and mentoring support for staff at all levels, covering topics such as inclusive classroom practice, effective support for teaching and learning, understanding behaviour, meeting the needs of neurodiverse learners and those who have experienced trauma. We are absolutely passionate about SEND & Inclusion and this comes across in our engaging, empowering training sessions.

What does your 1:1 Tutoring/Intervention/Mentoring look like?
That depends completely on the child or young person involved and the target(s) of the sessions - it could involve music, play, stories, drama, discussion, demonstration or a mixture of all of these and more! The approach and activities will very much depend on the child or young person, and the reason for the support request, but all one-to-one work is designed to be fun and engaging and to equip the child or young person with the skills and values that underpin aspiration and independence.

How much support do you provide – would you be in school all day?
We are unique in providing the majority of our services in two hour chunks, which can be flexible in comprising a variety of services (for example, one hour pupil support - which could be 2 x 30 min sessions - plus one hour consultation with staff). Our training and workshops are from 1.5 hours in duration.

We didn’t buy you in at the start of the year, do we need to wait till next April/September before we can access your services?
Support can be requested at any time during the academic year (subject to availability). Schools can select from a Partnership Package (which offers consistent weekly, fortnightly, or half-termly support at preferential rates, plus access to discounted additional services) or can ‘pay as you go’ e.g. termly training sessions.

We would like to request support for a pupil/student. How does it work - are there lots of forms to fill in?
A core value at Zoom Educational Support is accessibility – we know that school staff do not have the time or energy to fill in reams of paperwork only for their request to sit languishing in an in-tray or to be rejected. If you’re looking for support, give us a call or drop us an email, explain the general situation and nine times out of ten we will be able to tell you there and then if we can help, at which stage we will ask you to fill in a short support request form including pupil details and parental consent. We would then look to consult with key people and to read important documents such as EHCPs and support plans to inform our approach going forward. 

Why are you called Zoom Educational Support?
When you take a photograph, what do you do? You zoom in to focus on the most important elements – that’s what we do, just in educational support form! Then, once we’ve focused on what matters and personalised our approach, we facilitate rapid progress - so pupils are zooming along!

Are you related to the 'zoom' used for video calls?
We are in no way connected to 'zoom' video conferencing software.